1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to data management systems, and more specifically for facilitating identification of star schemas in database environments.
2. Related Art
A database generally refers to a collection of data that is organized to facilitate easy access, update and management of the data using queries. In case of relational databases, the queries are specified in a language such as Structured Query Language (SQL). The data of interest is generally organized in the form of tables, and the definition of the structure (i.e., columns, the type of data that can be stored in each column) of all such tables is referred to as a schema.
Processing queries often requires joins of multiple tables at least in contexts when the required data is stored in different tables. In general, there is overhead (example, processing and/or retrieval) associated with joins, which could be of particular concern when the database is to be used for large number of retrievals.
Star schema (also known as a star join schema) refers to a type of schema in which tables are designed with redundancy of data. Star schemas organize data in terms of fact tables and dimension tables, with fact tables containing detailed data of interest (e.g., aggregated information or detailed counts, etc.). Due to such organization as fact tables and dimension tables, later retrieval of related data is simplified, thereby making star schemas suitable for environments requiring analysis of data.
In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.